If You've Had Your Luggage Lost on Your Way To Your Cruise, Post Your Experience

[willysgrandma]

DH and I were having a discussion this morning about lost luggage on the way to the ship. When we travel, we always try to get direct flights (we are lucky enough to live 20 minutes from JFK airport in NY), arrive at least two hours early and never check our luggage curbside and so far, so good. We're curious about what happens if your luggage didn't get to the ship with you.

 

We also make sure we put half of my clothes in his luggage and vice versa so neither of us is without clothes if a bag gets lost.

 

If you've had luggage lost on your way to a cruise, can you answer these questions:

 

1. What airport did you fly from and what airline?

2. Did you have a connecting flight?

3. How early did you arrive at the airport to check in? Did you do curbside check in or did you check your bags at the counter?

4. If you had a connecting flight, did your first flight arive at the connecting airport on time?

5. If your bag finally arrived how long did it take for the airline to get your bag to you - before the ship left or did they have to fly it into a port for you?

6. Did you have your cruise ship luggage tag on your bags when you checked your bags at the airport?

 

I'm curious if we do all we can to try and avoid lost luggage or if we've simply been lucky!

[Toto2Kansas]

After 30 cruises, (knocking on all wood I can find), we have never had our luggage lost or misplaced by the airlines. We have had straight through flights, connecting flights, multiple connecting flights, International flights, etc.

I honestly think we have gotten very lucky with this.

 

But, we still always bring our carryons with at least a change of clothes and essentials in our little zipper plastic bag, should it ever happen.

 

It is that sigh of relief I breathe when getting to our destination for each cruise when I see our bags come out that gets me in the vacation mode.

But we always go prepared, just in case.

[MercedMike]

LOL -- well, on our last cruise, our luggage didn't exactly get lost ... it's just that we went one way and the luggage went another!

 

We were on American, Sacramento to DFW to FLL, flying in the day before with confirmed motel reservations. Just as we were descending into Dallas, a big sandstorm with 50 mph winds closed the airport. We were diverted to Austin, along with about 8 other flights. After about 6 hours in Austin we managed to get a flight back to DFW (nobody was going anyplace from Austin!) The airline finally got us on a midnight flight to Orlando, and we rented a car and drove four hours to FLL, arriving at our motel at 6 AM, just time for a shower and a nap.

 

We met the rest of our party there, and I went with them to board the ship while my DW went back to the airport to try to find our bags. Four planes came in from DFW, but no bags on any of them! So -- my ever resourceful wife went to Target, and in about 45 minutes came out with $250 worth of clothes! According to her report it was quite a sight when she embarked the ship with four big white Target bags for her luggage!

 

Our itinerary was Half Moon Cay, day at sea, Aruba, so there was no chance to get our luggage until Aruba. The HAL staff was wonderful about it, they followed up on the lost bag report, kept in touch with the airline, let us know when our luggage was found and sent on to Aruba. They also offered us free priority laundry and me a free tux rental, as well as notifying the maitre d' of our situation so there would be no questions in the dining room. When we came back from our excursion in Aruba, there were our bags in our room!

 

Eventually, American reimbursed us for the clothes we bought.

 

I don't think this is quite the story you were looking for, but it was an -- shall we say -- interesting experience!;)

[willysgrandma]

Mike, this is just what I am looking for. Did you file a lost luggage report on HAL? And were they the ones who ended up interceding with American for you to get the bags delivered?

[geejay]

In over 20 cruises we have only had luggage lost once. And wouldn't you know it, that was with my daughter.

 

It was in 1992 on Royal Caribbean. At that time there were no alternative dining rooms, just the dining room for dinner. We did not have clothes for formal night, and the cruise line would not send dinner to our room. So we went casual. Our tablemates were great about it, and my teenage son thought not dressing up was good. However, my 21 year old daughter was sooooo upset.

 

We flew in the night before (airfare purchased through the cruiseline) and in those days the cruiseline kept your luggage overnight, you never did see it, just kept your carryons. It was very hot in Miami and I had (fortunately) picked the kids up a shorts/tank top outfit and new swimming suits at the hotel gift shop. We did each have a change of underclothes and nightwear.

 

The cruiseline was good to us -- gave us each $150 shipboard credit, so we picked up some shorts and t-shirts. Unfortunately they do not sell underclothes, or shoes except for flipflops. And they did not sell formal wear like they do now, although we wouldn't have had shoes to wear anyway. They provided us free laundry. Our luggage caught up with us on day 5 of a 7 day cruise! When we got home I filed a claim with the airlines and got some compensation though I sure can't remember how much it was.

 

The surprise was that Royal Caribbean gave us a coupon for 50% off a cruise for two people. My daughter used it for her honeymoon later.

 

I think things are much different now and it would be easier with the different dining venues. My son and I went with the flow, but my daughter was very embarrassed when she wasn't dressed for the dinners. We did meet lots of people who would come up to us on formal night and say "oh, you are the family who didn't get their luggage?"

[Flyer]

Our luggage was delayed two different times.

 

The first going to Copenhagen two days early for a Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. The luggage didn't make it to the hotel but did make it to our cabin. We didn't know if it would make it in time until it arrived AFTER the ship departed. The hotel assured me he would get it there. On this flight we connected from our home to DFW via JFK. No problem just had to be patient.

 

The second time again into Copenhagen for a transatlantic cruise also going in two days early...NO luggage when we boarded ship as ALL our bags had been sent to Tokyo from DFW. We received them all at our second port and enjoyed the rest of the trip.

 

We did have changes of clothing in our carry on. I think Princess did an excellent job tracking the bags for us. In addition we were offered toiletries kits and a tux for me and a black pant and blouse for the DW for the first formal night. They also did our laundry with express service free. We needed to buy a few items like Tux studs and bow tie, light jacket etc. We did have insurance and that covered the extras for us.

 

Overall, it created some nervousness but nothing to blame any particular person so we just rolled with it and enjoyed the cruise.

[partyboy]

 

I'm curious if we do all we can to try and avoid lost luggage or if we've simply been lucky!

 

I'm just lucky...met you didn't I?!?!;)

[BigGuy25]

On our very first cruise, on the now defunct Royal Cruise Line, we hit several weather delays on our trip from Cleveland to LA. The cruise line held the ship 3 hours for our group ... but our luggage didn't make it through the quick plane change in Denver. It was a 14 day LA to San Juan voyage via the canal, and we didn't see our luggage for 6 days! A medical emergency forced us to skip a port and sail directly to Alcapulco. The cruise line handled everything. They gave us a bit of credit to buy some clothing in the ship's store and kept us posted each day on the journey of our luggage. Other passengers were great. Fortunately we knew enough to pack our shorts, swimming suits, etc. in our carry-on!! But, it still was an interesting six days!!!!

[KLLund]

We flew from Boston to Istanbul with a connection in Paris. In those days I didn't know enough to pack half or each of our clothes in each suitcase or to take a change in a carryon. When we reached Istanbul, hubby's clothes and the formal clothes all arrived, but my suitcase did not. We raced off to the Grand Bazaar and if you want hilarious moments.. try buying women's underwear in a Turkish country. Found some 501 Levi's and a couple pair of sandals and some can we think our grandmother's foundation garments .. bras and panties . Prayed all the way to Kusadasi that the suitcase would show up.. alas not to be. Off to the bazaar in Kusadasi where I found "designer" shorts and tee's for $3,00 each. Checked in with Celebrity and were told .. so sorry but if your suitcase is not here in Kudsadsi you won't see it until Athens.. it cannot be flown to Cyprus or Egypt.

 

There were many more stories about picking up a few things here and there to tide me over for the week until my clothes got there .. but I do have to say we had a ball over this whole thing. Added a fun and creative dimension to this trip.

 

I was however glad to look down onto the dock in Chitaveccia (sp) and see that tapestry bag waiting to be loaded on board !!!

[tONYpAL85]

Ours has been lost, but it was on the way home from the cruise (so it wasn't a big deal). We flew Southwest and they delivered the bag late that night. I guess it was just on another flight. Still, as it had all of our shoes in it, it would have been bad to have not had it on the boat with us.

[Colo Cruiser]

Flew United (nonstop) from Denver to Vancouver for the Island Princess last year. When we arrived in baggage claim we discoverd that one of our bags was missing. Luckily we were staying at the Fairmont Waterfront and we were there two days early.

 

Another couple on the same flight were not as lucky as they were sailing that afternoon on RCCL.

 

Our bag was not delivered to the hotel until the next day and I am pretty sure the other couple didnt get there bags until several days into their cruise.

 

United said that the bags were still in Denver and were taken off because of weight restrictions of the entire plane.

 

They could not be flown in until later that night and they would have to go through the usual customs check. Being that we were not with the bags they were treated like incoming freight and had to wait their turn to go through customs.

 

We were lucky getting the bag before we sailed.

[crewser]

Has happened twice:

 

1) arrived at 4pm (purchased air from cruise line), ship left at 5pm, luggage did not make it. Got it 2 days later at the first port

2) last week flying through DFW, got diverted to 3 more airports before we finally made San Juan the next morning. Luggage did not make it w/ us, but the airline did deliver it before we sailed at 10pm that night.

 

Lessons learned; carry enough to make it through 2 days.

[GABY1]

on our 2004 med cruise on rcl splendour of the seas we flew from manchester uk to barcelona on iberia airlines. we waited patiently at the carousel for our luggage but no sign of it.:mad: my husband had to go join a long line at a desk for missing luggage. we had 1 large case & 1 small case a rcl rep stayed with us the whole time & told us iberia loses luggage all the time! anyway we left barcelona airport with no cases to go to the ship, we were the very last passengers to board that day. any to cut along story short we received the small case before we sailed, rcl was very helpful in providing t shirts toiletries free laundry for what little we did have. we had no formal wear but rcl again provided husband with a dinner suit again free of charge i managed to get by but did not have my formal, staff were very understanding in the dining room. we finally received our luggage at our post cruise hotel in barcelona cases battered and damaged though everything seemed to be there. when we arrived back home we made claims with our insurers & had no problems in claiming. we kept all receipts of things we had to buy. it was our 4th cruise at the time & though it was really stressfull at the time we still had a great cruise :)

[piper28]

Flew Flint, MI to Houston for our Grand cruise in February. Flight was late leaving because of weather in Chicago (heck, they actually had us get off the plane in Flint right after we boarded because of a supposed ground hold in chicago). Ended up missing out flight in Chicago by 15 minutes (it had been delayed going out). Ended up being put on a flight the next morning (day of cruise). That flight was delayed out of Chicago because American is inept at deicing planes. Arrived in Houston, and only 3 out of the 4 of our bags where there. Naturally this happened after the wife and I'd had a discussion about whether or not to do some cross packing of the luggage, and I'd responded "nah, nothing is going to happen". Personally, I consider it inexcusable that it didn't make it, since they had overnight to get the luggage transfered. (And another group on our original plane from Flint that were headed to the Grand also had all their luggage show up). Cut it pretty close to making the ship that day. American did fly the luggage out, but it didn't arrive until Belize (third of 4 stops). I kinda wonder if they were being cheapskates and wouldn't fly it on another airline to Roatan (no airport in Costa Maya, so not surprising it wasn't there).

 

Princess did actually lend me a shirt for formal night (my suit had made it, but not the shirts). And I was impressed that they seemed to stay on top of the situation, and had called us on the sea day telling us that they'd been in contact with the airline and that we'd get it in Belize. I did hear our cruise had a large number of people without luggage.

 

Course, you'd think that'd be the end of my bad luck for that cruise, right? Nope, return flight was cancelled because of weather in Chicago, delayed till the next day, when we ended up flying through Atlanta on a different airline. Flight from Atlanta to Flint was on a commuter jet, operate by something like SouthEast Airlines, or whatever they're called (the bottom rated line in the recent satisfaction survey). Apparently some of those Canadair jets can't handle a full flight and everyone's luggage, so they decided to put more people on the plane and not fly everyone's luggage. We ended up with only 1 bag out of 4 on this trip, and that bad had actually ended up on an earlier flight. Lots of other people missing luggage too. Didn't get thoise three till very late the next evening.

 

All in all, probably the worst airline travel experiance I've ever had.

[chasetf]

We have only had delayed bags once. We flew from the west coast to Ft Lauderdale with a connection in Chicago. We made it but our bags got stuck in Chicago. Fortunately we flew in a day early.

 

That afternoon and evening I was able to determine from the airlines that our bags would arrive on the 11am flight. So we went out to the airport to meet them, got them, reported into the baggage office so they cleared the records.... then got onto the port to board. It took some extra taxi money to do it.... but I wanted to make sure our bags made the ship with us and not depend on someone to deliver them before we sailed.

 

As an aside, when picking up our bags, there was a young woman in the office who had just flown in from Boston. She was advised her bags would arrive on the 8pm flight. She lamented that she was due to sail (on our ship) at 5pm. She had to wait 3 days for them to arrive at our first port. :(

[LonghornKJK]

We've only lost a piece of luggage twice and both times were on the way home.

 

The first time, we were on the way home from attending the Rose Bowl (not the National Championship but the year before.) First, I thought we had tickets to leave on Sunday so we gave up our hotel room and turned in the rental car and showed up early in the morning at the Burbank Airport to find out that we didn't have reservations until Monday morning. No problem -- we just rented another car and spent the day in Santa Barbara. :)

 

But the real saga began the next day. Our flight from Burbank to Phoenix was delayed because the crew got in late the night before and had to rest. This means we got into Phoenix too late to make our flight to Austin, even though we raced to the gate and the plane was still there! There were dozens of us who now had to make other arrangements. We weren't going to be able to get a flight to Austin until late the next day but my husband's grandmother had died New Year's Eve and her funeral was going to be the next morning in Tulia, Texas, which is about an hour south of Amarillo. So we asked if they could get us to either Amarillo or Lubbock and we'd ride back to Austin with my husband's folks. They got us a flight to Denver and from there, we took the smallest commercial plane I've ever seen to Amarillo. Except that Amarillo was fogged in so the plane had to land in Liberal, Kansas, where we spent the night. That's when we found out that one piece of luggage was missing.

 

We hadn't brought any clothes with us suitable for a funeral so we did the best we could at midnight shopping at the 24-hour Walmart. We had to be back at the airport (the tiniest I've ever seen!) by 5 a.m. Then the flight was delayed again due to ice with an ice storm headed our way. After the pilot de-iced the plane (did I mention it was a small airport? :)) we finally took off and got into Amarillo but no sign of our bag. It apparently was sent on to Austin but then Austin sent it back to Denver so it took a couple more days to get it. They delivered it to our home. The original airline was America West and I believe they're the ones who screwed up getting our bag to the puddle jumper.

 

The other time they lost a piece was on the way back from our Alaskan cruise when we changed planes at LAX. It was delivered to our home by the next day. This was American Airlines.

 

We drove to both our Grand Princess cruises and managed to hold on to our luggage both ways. :)

[nurseone]

Cruise air Carnival same day (didn't know anybetter - had not found the boards yet) Direct flight DFW to Miami - American - arrived around 1pm for 4pm sailing - only one of two bags arrived. First port San Juan (American did get my bag to San Juan) Of course didn't know to split packing so all my formal clothes made it but no shorts, swimsuits or underware. As luck had it the gal I travel with loaned me some t shirts - etc and made do without a problem as I had packed change of clothes etc in carryon and just hand washed the few things I had.

 

Carnival was less than helpful - reported it at check in and made all the necessary reports. Went to check on it on at the Pursers Desk and of course they had no information so had to re-do all the reports (was given a $50. shipboard credit - no other compensation offered at all). While at sea before arriving in San Juan (late afternoon) my Mother from back in Texas called me to tell me that American called her and said the bag had been sent to San Juan so I proceeded to the Pursers Desk to see what I needed to do (ie go to airport to pickup bag or would they get it to the ship) Less than helpful - stated they had no idea if it would even be there regardless of my call and would just have to wait and see. Could not even tell me no I didn't have to go to the airport. I asked our room steward and he assured me that they would collect the bag and it would be delivered to my room and it was but it was stressful not knowing what to do and with Carnival been less than helpful it didn't help.

 

Since then no problems thankfully.

[willysgrandma]

I'm just lucky...met you didn't I?!?!;)

 

 

We were the lucky ones who met You - we had a lot of fun with you. I am watching your future cruises to see if we can join you again, LOL. How do you get so much time off to cruise?

[daveco58]

Picking up my girlfriend, who lives in Texas, at Long Beach Airport for a 4day to Mexico, no bags.... Stop over in Phoenix from San Antonio to Long Beach, not really sure why the bags couldnt keep up.

No problem, says the airline, we will get them to you in Catalina (the first stop). The bags will be at the airport at 2:00 p.m

So, a quick trip to Walmart to pick up a few things (she had most of what she needed in her carry-on)

Toured around Avalon all day, went to the airport at 2. Plane is delayed. Should be in at 3. Back at 3, plane has come in.....still no bags. Airline didnt load them on at LB. No problem, says the airline. Buy what you need, save the receipts, we will re-imburse you. Now its 1 hour to find and buy something, because tonite is Formal Night, and last tender is leaving at 4:30. Catalina has some nice boutiques, but WAY expensive. Anyway, we get it done, and back on the ship.

Next day in Ensenada we have to find a plain old department store to buy a few things. Boy isnt this fun? Not only do they carry poor quality goods, they were poor quality when they went out of style 6 years ago.

It is a good thing she is 6 feet tall and blonde, or Immigration would have kept her. Her clothes just screamed "illegal alien". But what are you going to do? Anyway, we got it done, managed to have a good time, anyway, and had the added convenience of not having to carry her bags from the ship to the airport, as they were waiting for her when she boarded her plane. lol.

So, hassle...? yes....but not enough to ruin a good time.

[willysgrandma]

Dave, what airline?

[partyboy]

I am watching.....

 

You just keep watching over your shoulder, because before you know it, I'm going to find YOU!:p

 

Very interesting thread by the way. Good reading!

[willysgrandma]

You just keep watching over your shoulder, because before you know it, I'm going to find YOU!:p

 

Very interesting thread by the way. Good reading!

 

Well, we are doing the Dawn out of San Diego in March.....

[MercedMike]

Mike, this is just what I am looking for. Did you file a lost luggage report on HAL? And were they the ones who ended up interceding with American for you to get the bags delivered?

 

Yes, we filed a lost luggage report with HAL. They were very good about following up with it, let us know when our luggage was located, and told us it would be delivered in Aruba. We had NOT put our HAL tags on the bags before checking them with the airline, but when we filed our lost luggage report with AA we did note that we were departing on HAL. I'm not sure about "interceding," but clearly AA and HAL worked together to get the bags to us as soon as possible. Basically it was as good an experience as it could be under the circumstances.

 

DW bought a "little black dress" at Target, and I had my rented tux, so we didn't even feel out of place on formal night! And somehow, her "necessities" included two new pairs of shoes, too! AA reimbursed us $50 a day for expenses with no problems.

[SaylorGirl]

We carry on only, never have to worry about it being lost.

[wanderingjew]

on my last 40 cruises they have never delivered my luggage because i carry it on :)